An Evening of Prayer - Eucharistic Family Rosary Crusade

This July a large event is coming to Avista Stadium that will differ greatly from the usual fare of hot dogs, cotton candy and baseball. The fliers popping up in parishes and schools around the diocese, and even in our neighboring dioceses invite us to come and worship the King of kings. July 23, the diocese and the Eucharistic Family Rosary Crusade organization will host an evening of adoration and prayer in Avista Stadium. This event will be the culmination of parish presentations, school assemblies and evenings of prayer in parishes around the diocese. At the same time, the hope is that it will only be the beginning.
The Eucharistic Family Rosary Crusade was founded in Rome by Father James Kelleher on the day of the beatification of St. Teresa of Calcutta, Oct. 19, 2003. The Eucharistic Family Rosary
Crusade takes as its spiritual patrons Pope St. John Paul II and St. Teresa of Calcutta. Both of these saints had a great devotion to both the rosary and Eucharistic adoration. Father James Kelleher is a priest of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity or SOLT. His order is involved in missionary work both in the United States and abroad.
In preparation for the Eucharistic Family Rosary Crusade evening of prayer at Avista Stadium this summer, Father Kelleher has assembled a team to organize and lead this campaign of prayer with those who initially invited him to the diocese and introduced him to Bishop Daly.
The organizing team with Father Kelleher has visited many of our parish schools, leading an assembly with the school children sharing the rosary and God’s love for them. Every student was given a Miraculous Medal: a necklace with a medal bearing the image of Mary. This particular image of Mary, Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, was given to St. Catherine Labouré in Rue Du Bac, Paris, France in the 1830s by Mary in an apparition. This image of Mary gained great devotion in the decades after St. Catherine Labouré’s visions.
Every school also was given copies of a video rosary presentation and encouraged to make praying one decade of the rosary part of their daily classroom routine.
As the event draws closer, pastors and other parish leaders will begin sharing information about it. The hope of this campaign of prayer, both in the parishes and at the diocesan level, is that the rosary will become part of our family prayer and as a diocese we will turn closer to our Lord in the Eucharist.

EUCHARISTIC ADORATION Though many Catholics are familiar with adoration as a form of prayer, not all have had the opportunity to participate in this deep form of prayer.
As Catholics, we believe that Jesus Christ is truly present in the Eucharist. In the body and blood of Christ, Jesus is really and truly present; body, blood, soul and divinity. In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells his followers “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.” (John 6:53-55).
In adoration, we acknowledge our God present in the Eucharist and pray to him in his real presence. Often the Eucharist will be placed in a special display called a monstrance. Adoration as a practice has been influential in the lives of many, from great saints to ordinary Catholics.

ROSARY Many Catholics know about the rosary but its practice as part of the prayer life of most Catholics has diminished in the last decades. While the prayers are largely directed to Mary, asking for her intercession, the rosary itself is a practice of meditation on the life of Christ and his saving work.
The rosary contains five decades of prayers, utilizing the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be; some also add the Fatima prayer.
The rosary focuses on the mysteries of Christ’s life. The mysteries are the Glorious, Joyful, Luminous and Sorrowful that focus on different aspect of Christ’s life.
To learn more about the rosary, visit
www.usccb.org/rosary.